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YOUR FLAG AND MY FLAG 



ANDREAS BARD, D. D. 



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Your Flag and My Flag 



Your Flag and My Flag 

PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES 
Delivered bg 

DR. ANDREAS BARD. 

Pastor of the First English Lutheran Church 
of Kansas Citp, Mo. 




1918 

THE LUTHERAN UTERARY BOARD 
BURLINGTON. IOWA 






Copyright 1918 by 
R. NEUMANN 
BurlingtoD, Iowa. 



DEC -3 1918 

)CI.A5067()9 




Address delivered at Patriotic Mass Meeting at Con- 
vention Hall, Kansas City, Mo., April 15th, 1917. 

I FEEL somewhat embarrassed at the prom- 
inent place assigned to me this afternoon. 
There are so many orators in this city, 
so many statesmen who could present to you 
more ably and more eloquently the purpose 
of this meeting that I should have preferred 
a quiet afternoon at my fireside. But when 
the Committee on Arrangements called on 
me I realized that this was the first oppor- 
tunity I had of proving my patriotic sincer- 
ity, and I hasten to state, not only for myself, 
but for this large gathering of Americans — 
born in Germany and other foreign lands — 
that we are not luke warm hyphens, nor men 
without a country, but that we are 100 per 
cent Americans. We came to these shores 
not by predestination; we came here by 



choice. Our citizenship is entirely of our 
own free will and accord. 

We furthermore state that we fully com- 
prehend the meaning of true Americanism. 
It means that we recognize no king but Jus- 
tice. We bow to no crown save Liberty. We 
have no Kaiser but our conscience. When 
we set foot on the shores of New York we 
ceased to be subjects ; we became citizens. 

If any one would look down on the immi- 
grant, he would have to despise the Pilgrim 
Fathers who came here in the Mayfiovs^er. 
He would have to belittle the pioneers who 
in all times and climes have blazed the trail 
of progress. I recall the pointed remark 
made recently in the United States Senate: 
"A sponge never migrates ; it is born and dies 
upon the same rock, but the game fish finds 
its way to the headwaters of every creek and 
river of the earth." Day before yesterday 
we were all foreigners; today we are all 
Americans. 

There is no one here who detests war more 
than I do. As long as I have been in the 
ministry I have shown its absurdity and de- 
picted its cruelty. But lilies sometimes spring 



from swampy ground, and one golden sheaf 
that has been gleaned from the world-wide 
battlefield is a meeting of this kind when na- 
tives of many lands are forced to inquire into 
the meaning of American citizenship and 
study the folds of Old Glory as they never 
studied them before. 

I do not believe in suspecting anyone. Noth- 
ing is gained by scenting a spy or a traitor in 
everybody who does not fully agree with us. 
The only way to bring out the best there is in 
our fellowmen is to trust them until they 
prove unworthy of our trust. Such is my 
faith in American patriotism that if all Prot- 
estants should be wiped out, as if by magic, 
the Catholics of this country would protect 
the flag against the enemies from without or 
within ; that if all the men of the North were 
dead, the men of the South would see to it 
that Old Glory should not be lowered; that 
if all the native Americans would cease to be, 
the foreigners who found a home here would 
fight for their adopted fatherland, even 
though it be against the country which they 
left behind. 

I am not statesman enough to analyze the 



meaning of the present war. To me it looks 
like an unpardonable slaughter. I almost 
feel like the backwoodsman who by mistake 
found himself between two battle lines and 
not knowing what it meant shouted like ten 
bulls of Bashan : "Will you stop shooting, you 
scoundrels, can't you see that people are 
standing there." 

But if our national leaders are right in 
their diagnosis, no American patriot can re- 
fuse to endorse their measures of defence. 
If there is any nation which by its will to 
conquer opposes the world's will to live, we 
are bound by our democratic ideals to oppose 
such a nation. If there is any people on the 
face of the earth which places the nation 
above the individual, such a people has un- 
American ideals. "The world must be made 
safe for democracy." This statement of 
President Wilson is statesmanlike and cor- 
rect. No red-blooded American, native or 
foreign born, will be satisfied until the prin- 
ciples of life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
piness are extended, not only to the great 
powers of Europe, but to the smallest nation 
on earth, whether it be Greece or Poland or 

8 



Belgium. Nations are not born with saddles 
on their back nor others with spurs to ride 
them. 

The question which at this crisis agitates 
the nation is this : Will Americans of German 
blood be loyal to their adopted country? 
Now, it would be an easy matter to pour forth 
a Niagara of words. But we want more than 
words. Regan and Goneril protested their 
love for King Lear while Cordelia was silent ; 
in the real crisis none was more faithful than 
Cordelia. 

Let us apply the test of Henry Clay: "I 
have no lamp to guide my feet save the lamp 
of experience." What has been the experi- 
ence of this nation in regard to Americans of 
German birth ? Speaking to the Co-operative 
Club a few weeks ago, I stated that the first 
regiment to reach Washington after his call 
to arms was the York County regiment com- 
posed of Germans under Lieutenant Heinrich 
Miller. I stated that the first force to reach 
Lincoln was a regiment from Pennsylvania 
composed almost entirely of descendants of 
the Revolutionary patriots who first respond- 
ed to Washington's call. I referred to the 

9 



victor of Santiago, Admiral Schley. I said 
that the first shot fired in Manila Bay was 
fired by Chief Gunner Leonard G. F. Kuehl- 
wein, a German. Since then I have been bom- 
barded with letters denying these facts. In- 
stead of retracting a single statement, I am 
going to amplify and extend my assertions. 
Of the ill-starred sailors of the Maine twenty- 
seven were Germans. When a plea was sent 
out for financial assistance for the army at 
Valley Forge nine Germans responded with 
a subscription of $100,000.00. Over 400,000 
Americans of German origin served in the 
Union army, 8,000 of whom were officers. 
There was a German in Hobson's little band. 
There were thirteen German officers among 
Roosevelt's Rough Riders. It was a Lutheran 
minister of Teutonic blood, the Rev. Peter 
Muehlenberg, of Woodstock, Va., who threw 
aside his clerical gown, displayed a military 
uniform, gathered a company of 300 of his 
own flock and went through the war until he 
became a Major General. Look over the 
pages of American history if you would have 
an answer to the question : Can Americans of 
German blood be trusted in a crisis? Aye, 



10 



the soil is red with German blood that flowed 
for the Stars and Stripes. We were born in 
Germany, but in a deeper sense we are the 
children of the heroes I have mentioned. 

It would hardly be candid, of course, to 
ignore the difference of the present situation 
and that of former wars. The first great con- 
flict was with England, the second between 
the North and South. Today Germans see 
their adopted country at war with the land 
where they first saw the light of day. Will 
this fact leave them cold and indifferent? 
Will they rejoice in such a declaration of 
war? One thing is certain: if a man is in- 
sensible to his early training, to the bene- 
fits he received in the parental home, if he re- 
mains cold while his mother, father, brother 
and sister are starving, and while the land of 
his adoption is about to increase their suffer- 
ing; I say, if a man is utterly indifferent to 
so tragic a situation, he is incapable of the 
fundamental instincts of humanity and his 
presence is no credit to any country. You 
may well doubt his patriotic braggadocio, 
since he proved traitor to the very voice of 
nature. 

11 



I am frank to admit that my heart bleeds 
amid this conflict of sentiments. I feel like 
a man who marries and invites his mother 
to share his home with him. The time comes 
when the wife and mother can no longer get 
along in peace. One must go. We know that 
when a man marries he swears fealty for bet- 
ter, for worse, for richer, for poorer, even 
until death. We know that he must decide 
in favor of his wife and that he must ask his 
mother to go, but in the name of all that is 
sacred in human emotion I plead with you not 
to censure him when tears fill his eyes as he 
bids his mother good-bye. Just so we have 
left the shores of Hamburg and chosen the 
shores of New York. We have linked our 
fate to the fate of this great Republic. It is 
for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. 
We have allied our lives to a new country. 
And while our hearts are wounded and touch- 
ed with emotion beyond our power of speech 
we remember the oath we have sworn. We 
cannot go back on our word. Here we have 
built our homes. Here we have enjoyed our 
citizenship. Here we eat the daily bread. 
Shall it be said of us that we spat on the hand 

12 



that fed us? In the history of German- 
Americanism one word stands out clearly and 
persistently. This word is REASON. In the 
history of German-Americanism one word is 
utterly unknown and that word is TREASON. 
No man has a right to call us copperheads 
because we used every legitimate means to 
prevent this war. We held mass meetings. 
We published books. We wrote to our con- 
gressmen. We insisted that Germany was 
merely fighting for her existence. In short 
we left nothing undone to forestall the final 
decision. Was this un-American? Should 
we have kept still ? Let me answer. No man 
is a good citizen who keeps silent when he 
honestly believes that his words may prevent 
a national calamity. We have a right to argue 
while arguments are being presented. We 
have been in this country long enough to 
cherish the right of free speech and to fight 
for this right in true American fashion. I 
agree with Jefferson's declaration: "Error is 
harmless when Truth is left free to defeat 
it." I do not agree with men who denounced 
argument in Congress as to the advisability 
of the war. We want no gag rule. We want 

13 



the men whom we send to Congress to ex- 
press their convictions fearlessly and without 
bias. This is the patriotic way. It cannot 
possibly give comfort to our enemies when 
they discover that the nation was not rail- 
roaded into war, but decided to go into it 
after all sides of the question had been 
lengthily discussed on the floor of the House. 
There is only one democratic way for us to 
enter war and that is by vote of Congress. 
There is but one way to get a straight vote 
of Congress and that is by cool and deliberate 
debate. If these two conditions have been 
fulfilled there is but one democratic form of 
patriotism. We must back the President ; we 
must hang together or, by the Eternal, we 
must all hang separately. 

While demanding every right to express 
my preference in national questions subject 
to debate, I concede the same right to every 
other American citizen. President Wilson 
and his advisers are entitled to their prefer- 
ences and convictions. They are, in fact, in 
a better position than we to judge the signifi- 
cance of the gigantic conflict. They have 
stated their conclusions and the great bulk 

14 



of our representatives have concurred with 
them. The die is cast. I go still further. Not 
only have these American statesmen, backed 
by a majority, a right to declare war: if they 
candidly think that a victorious Germany 
would endanger the welfare of the Republic, 
it was their duty to say so and to act accord- 
ingly. However erroneous their decision may 
seem to us, there is but one American way. 
The Stars and Stripes are more to us than 
any other flag, more sacred than the flag of 
Germany. Old Glory must never trail in the 
dust. The worst shame we can heap on the 
land of our birth is to double-cross the land 
of our adoption. 

The history of this flag surpasses in sub- 
limity the records of any other nation. Every 
war it has waged has been waged in the 
cause of freedom and humanity. It has not 
endorsed the ancient rule that everybody is 
for himself and the devil take the hindmost. 
In the case of Cuba, the Philippines and China 
it has clearly fought for the right of the 
weak. We want no dollar mark on Old 
Glory. Were it not for these facts one might 
doubt the lofty sentiment expressed in Presi- 

15 



dent Wilson's message. But when he says 
that this nation does not go into the conflict 
for the sake of indemnity, that it scorns ma- 
terial gain, that it only wishes the recogni- 
tion by all nations of the right of every nation 
to live and to be free, then I can see a star 
amid the encircling gloom. Just as the South 
has learned to appreciate the necessity of the 
Civil War, though at the time it meant oceans 
of blood and tears, so the entrance of the 
United States into the arena may in the end 
turn out to be the greatest blessing not only 
for the Allies, but for Germany as well. This 
country has gone on record as having charity 
for all and malice toward none. It recognizes 
the good in every nation. From England it 
borrowed Shakespeare, from Germany Baron 
Von Steuben, from France Lafayette. It is 
an international nation. And if Germany is 
sincere in her claim that she does not wish 
to annex any territory, if England has no in- 
tention of blocking the world's demand for 
the freedom of the seas, if France has no 
ambitions but to work out her pacific ideals, 
if all the nations will agree to live and to let 
live, our great Republic's advent on the bat- 

16 



tie ground is perhaps the surest indication of 
an early peace. With heart and soul I endorse 
the President's plea that future wars must be 
averted. If this can only be done by a great 
international navy, such a navy would be 
safer under the control of the American Re- 
public than under that of any other nation 
on earth. Let me believe in this threatening 
hour of our nation's career that the Presi- 
dent's dream of a world peace may be fulfilled 
and that henceforth civilization will cease to 
be a fratricidal struggle for supremacy and 
become a fraternal struggle for the legiti- 
mate development of every nation on earth. 
It is assumed that every country repre- 
sents some peculiar talent. France has sym- 
bolized art, Germany science, England com- 
merce, Italy music. To each nation God en- 
trusted a special talent. What is the special 
contribution of America, her mission among 
the nations ? The United States are to give to 
the world a practical illustration of the fact 
that French and British, Germans and Ital- 
ians, Russians and Poles are not naturally 
and instinctively enemies. Here they live 
together in peace, breathe the same air, read 

17 



the same papers, ride together on the same 
street cars, work alongside of each other in 
the fields or at the office desk. Here they 
salute the same flag, here they join soul and 
hand in the cause of liberty. Surely no na- 
tion has had a higher mission nor fulfilled a 
grander destiny than the good old United 
States, which is about to make war against 
war and whose very existence has proven the 
ancient prophecy that swords can be turned 
into plough shares and spears into pruning 
hooks. May Old Glory's triumph be the an- 
swer to the poet's prayer : 

"That man and man the world o'er 
Shall brothers be and a' that." 



18 




An address delivered at Otis, Kan,, on Decoration 
Day, 1918. 

WE ARE gathered here, at the request 
of the President, to honor the noble 
dead. A neglected grave is a sad 
comment on the survivors. It brands them 
not only as ingrates, but as ignoramuses, 
for the mind that takes things for granted 
is a blank. Certain it is, that if it v^ere not 
for yesterday's sacrifices we should still be 
savages in the jungle. Civilization in all its 
phases is the accumuated treasure of genera- 
tions that long since crumbled into dust. 
Moses in solitude, Ezekiel in exile, Paul on 
the scaffold, Joan of Arc in flames, Lincoln 
assassinated and, slain on a thousand battle- 
fields, the soldiers of all lands — these are the 
milestones on humanity's path of progress. 
History is not the island of Robinson Crusoe, 

21 



an isolated spot in the ocean of chance. His- 
tory is a mountain range beginning at Mt. 
Sinai, ascending toward Calvary and thence 
continuing through the ages until it touches 
Mt. Zion, the city of God, where man at last 
will return to his Maker. When Mr. Wilson 
exhorts us "to pray God that he may forgive 
our shortcomings," he was thinking, no 
doubt, of our self-sufficiency, our disregard of 
the mighty past. Let the man of the Twen- 
tieth Century bear in mind this fact: If we 
can see farther today than our fathers and 
forefathers, it is because we stand on the 
scaffolding reared by them. Even a dwarf 
on the shoulders of the giant can see farther 
than his pedestal. To recognize this is an 
act of true patriotism, for the greatest na- 
tions are those who have a proper apprecia- 
tion of its heroes, its leaders and its martyrs. 
Consider the Jews. In spite of innumer- 
able persecutions they survive amid dying 
races. They have been mobbed, stoned, exiled, 
imprisoned, but they are here. Their per- 
sistence is the miracle of the ages. Would 
you know why ? Because they honored their 
great leader and heeded his commandment, 

22 



"Honor thy father and thy mother I'' At a 
time when the art of printing was unheard 
of the Hebrew parents would gather their 
little ones about them, telling them of Abra- 
ham, of Isaac, of Jacob. In their children 
they stimulated the spirit of reverence and 
roused them to emulate their deeds. A fine 
illustration of this is found in the eleventh 
chapter of Hebrews, which has been caUed 
the roll-call of heroes. Here history* appears 
"freighted with sacred and stimulating me- 
mories" whhich in the eyes of the listening 
youth kindled the flame of inspiration. The 
question is asked sometimes how the first 
pages of the Bible could have been recorded 
since no contemporaries could have written 
them. The answer is clear. These records 
were preserved in the stories which mothers 
told their children, handing them down from 
generation to generation. K the Hebrews are 
still with us, in spite of time that destroys 
and persecutions that kill, we must consider 
their love of ancestrj', as a reward for which 
Moses promised that their "days should be 
long upon the earth." 

How valuable this lesson to a people who 

23 



speak of their mother as "the old woman" 
and who call their father "the governor." 
When the rights of old age are laid into the 
cradle of saucy children, when white hair and 
bowed shoulders cease to inspire reverence in 
the young, we shall soon perish from the 
stage of existence. Our generation, pam- 
pered by prosperity, has become a corpse at- 
tracting the birds of prey. And when the 
President speaks of "dark days of perlexity 
and struggle," we may reasonably infer that 
God's punishment is at hand. 

The spirit of the dead is ever present. 
Every book you open should remind you of 
Gutenberg, every railroad train of James 
Watt, every Bible of Martin Luther, every 
flag of George Washington. A British author 
compares the past to an invisible choir. The 
music of yesterday accompanies the strug- 
giers of today. When an old man, sowing the 
seed, was asked why he went to the trouble 
of planting an apple tree, since he would not 
live to eat the fruit thereof, he answered: 
"Because others who lived before me have 
planted trees for me." This is the spirit of 
Decoration Day: 

24 



"Lives of great men remind us 
We may make our lives sublime, 
And departing leave behind us 
Footprints in the sand of time." 

While God's hand is heavily upon us we 
should turn from our ways and seek new life 
in reverence and gratitude. It is not enough 
to place flowers upon the tomb. Let the tomb 
become an altar where we consecrate our- 
selves to holier effort ! A great many of you 
have come here from Germany. While our 
country is at war with the Hohenzollerns you 
need not be ashamed of your Teuton origin. 
In the first place it is clear that no man can 
help where he is born, but a man can help 
what he is. Listening to a number of native 
Americans who declared that they were 100 
per cent American, I made bold to assert: 
"If you who came here by accident are 100 
per cent American, I can claim to be 150 per 
cent American, because I came here not by 
accident, but by. choice." This is true of the 
great majority of German-born Americans. 
There are exceptions, of course, and the pub- 
lic press makes a great ado about those ex- 
ceptions. When you pass through a pasture 
you hear more racket from a few grasshop- 

25 



pers than from a multitude of peaceful kine. 
But surely it would be the height of folly to 
conclude that there was nothing but grass- 
hoppers in the field ! 

And if we need not be ashamed of the 
place of our birth because we had no say 
about our parentage, neither need we dis- 
claim what we have inherited from our Teu- 
ton ancestors. Says President Wilson in his 
speech of Jan. 8, 1918: "We grudge her 
(Germany) no achievement or distinction of 
learning or of specific enterprise, such as 
have made her record very bright and very 
enviable." It is not the intention of intelli- 
gent Americans to fight the Germany of art 
and letters. It has been made clear again 
and again that whatever Germany has con- 
tributed toward the wealth of humanity shall 
not suffer from this war. If our German 
parents taught us thrift and honesty, we 
shall treasure this heritage. We are proud 
of the long line of great musicians who from 
Bach to Wagner have sprung from this race. 
We cherish the lyrics of Heine, the dramas 
of Schiller, the discoveries of Roentgen, the 
manliness of Luther. But we are not going 

26 



to stop there. We are not going to limit our 
vision to the banks of the Rhine. As soon as 
we set foot on American soil we learned that 
there were other nations worthy of recogni- 
tion, that there were principles not taught in 
German schools, ideals foreign to the land of 
our birth. The human spirit cannot be put 
in a cage. The soul resents limitations. We 
found that the world is a much broader, 
grander and more significant place than was 
dreamed of in the brain of our schoolmasters. 
God, who places the stars in his heaven that 
we may every night behold the vastness of 
the universe, has called us to a nobler point 
point of view. In this land where French and 
English and Irish and Teuton and Belgian 
meet we have buried the provincialism of Eu- 
rope. New light has been thrown on Christ's 
question: **Who is my neighbor?" While 
German boys are trained to look upon the 
French in the West and the Russians in the 
East as enemies to be cut down, we meet 
them under the Stars and Stripes and call 
them brothers. We have no grudge, no axe 
to grind. Together we go to the polls and do 
our duty as citizens. Nor shall we limit our- 

27 



selves to German culture. We refuse to say 
that Germany is the only land that has pro- 
duced real music. Italy has given us Verdi 
and Rossini. The English Shakespeare is 
greater than the German Goethe, and for real 
inspiration we go to Victor Hugo, the French- 
man. I congratulate you on your double her- 
itage. Whatever good there was in Germany 
you have retained. But when you saw life 
under the torch of liberty new worlds have 
been disclosed to your sight. No more Pan- 
Germanism. Thank God, there are others! 
And I do not hesitate to state that there 
are flaws in the German system. No man can 
be an American who upholds the spirit of 
caste. It is true that we have snobocrats in 
this country. They are a self-styled "supe- 
rior" set who ''sow not, neither do they spin, 
while even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these." They crowd into 
the society column and clamor for notoriety. 
What they lack in pedigree, they make up in 
money, and what they miss in intelligence 
they supplant with arrogance. But these 
"Four Hundred" exist not because of, but in 
spite of our American democracy. They are 

28 



not being taken seriously. They are being 
tolerated as clowns in a circus whose gambols 
amuse us. But in Germany they strut along 
with the pomp of ancient kings. When we 
behold these artificial puppets we recall the 
Shakespearian words: 
''On what meat does this, our Caesar, feed 
That makes him grow so great?" 
Caste may be excusable in benighted India, 
but by what flights of fancy can we justify 
it in the land of Luther and Kant ? Any man 
who makes distinctions of birth is an enemy 
of the human race. *'We are all the children 
of God," says St. John. For this credo Wash- 
ington drew the sword and after him that 
great commoner, Abraham Lincoln. I speak 
of the martyred President as a ''Great Com- 
moner." I could pay him no higher tribute. 
From the American viewpoint this is the su- 
preme compliment. Germany has counts who 
are "no-counts," her "junkers" — as the word 
indicates — even worse than "junk," while we 
cannot conceive of a higher tribute than that 
which Napoleon paid to Goethe when he said, 
"A man indeed !" 

However, I should fall short of the serious- 

29 



ness of this day were I to ignore the "sins" 
for the forgiveness of which the President 
exhorts us to pray. Even in this land of 
liberty there are evils which threaten our 
future. For the past fifty years we have been 
tearing down the faith of our fathers. We 
have drifted from the old moorings. We 
have neglected the altars reared by God- 
fearing men. The Puritans attended divine 
worship amid the greatest hardships. In one 
hand they held the Bible, in the other the 
gun. Going to church, they had to guard 
against the scalping knife of the savage, but 
still they went! Nowadays fashionable 
churches gather their audiences by giving 
them free auto rides, and still men stay at 
home ! The cynic has become popular in our 
midst. While great statesmen like Webster, 
Lincoln, Gladstone and Wilson recognize that 
without the Bible our civilization would be 
untenable, Ingersoll declared before applaud- 
ing audiences that "we have become civilized 
in spite of the Bible." The voice of the fa- 
mous agnostic has found a thousand echoes, 
and we have those who, like Herostratus, 
would burn the temple to make their names 

30 



immortal. They impugn every motive, sneer 
at ideals, discourage religion. 

0, ye who love Old Glory, remember that it 
is planted in the soil of Christianity ! If our 
young men are to go forward to die on for- 
eign fields, what can the cynic do to strength- 
en their morale ? He will tell them that they 
are nothing but animals, that death is the 
end and that self-sacrifice is folly. Will such 
a creed win any battles ? Only when I believe 
that "duty" is more than self-preservation, 
that to be right is better than to be rich, that 
to die free is better than to live a slave, only 
then can I do my best. There is but one flag 
that floats above the Stars and stripes — the 
Banner of the Cross. And well to the boys 
in khaki, when in the thick of the conflict 
they recognize "the White Companion" lead- 
ing them on to light! 

General Pershing has warned us against 
the "Hun at home." Who is he? First, 
there is the profiteer who coins gold out of 
his brother's blood. They say that since the 
beginning of the war we have a thousand new 
millionaires in this country. There are men 
who would betray their brothers as Judas be- 

31 



trayed Christ, but unlike Judas he does not 
ask for thirty pieces of silver, but for mil- 
lions. Unfortunately, he is further unlike 
Judas in that he does not go and hang him- 
self ! Shall we crucify our citizens on a cross 
of gold? Shall we place a crown of thorns 
on the brow of our soldiers that plutocrats 
may wax fat ? 

I am proud that this is not the spirit of the 
country. Germany used to speak of America 
as the "dollar land." We want William II to 
know that America is the most idealistic 
country on earth ! When our President says 
we want no conquests, no indemnities, he pro- 
claims a principle as startling to the Hohen- 
zollern as if they had seen a new sun in the 
sky! 

Another *'Hun at home" is the everlasting 
hyphenate. This does not only refer to the 
Germans. Why should we have French- 
Americans, Swedish-Americans, why "Little 
Italys" and "Chinatowns?" I believe in 
America, one nation indivisible ! 

Again there is the sower of discord. He 
would start a family row while the house is 
burning. I mean the trickster who uses the 

32 



present crisis to brand his enemy as "Pro- 
German." This practice has sunk to such a 
depth of absurdity that they have called 
"Pro-German" that full-orbed American, 
Theodore Roosevelt, and accused of Pro-Ger- 
manism the Kansas City Star. Let every in- 
nocent sufferer be content to remain in that 
company! This is the spirit denounced by 
our President when he says : "I want to say 
to every man who does join such a mob that 
I do not recognize him as worthy of the free 
institutions of the United States." He who 
casts reflections upon trustworthy men is 
himself a Hun of the deepest dye. He is so 
low that he must climb a ladder to get into 
hell. 

In his Gettysburg address Lincoln declared 
that we could not dedicate the ground, but 
that men should dedicate themselves to the 
work which the dead had begun. Not other- 
wise we shall find the meaning of Decoration 
Day. Over our graves rise thyme and 
mignonette. But more than that. Over our 
graves rise the spirits of noble fathers and 
mothers. We think of their struggles today ; 
we glory in their achievements. We are "a 

33 



part of all that we have met." Men of all 
races have given to us freely. Let us repay, 
in a small measure, what we have received! 
Let us instil in our children those principles 
which inspired the Constitution! Let us 
inspire them with the vision of Washington, 
the Americanism of Jefferson, the humanity 
of Lincoln, the idealism of Wilson. Welcome 
the stars in every sky and gather the pearls 
in every ocean ! We are not ashamed that we 
were born in Germany and we cherish what- 
ever wholesome influence has come from that 
source. But we are not in tune with any 
policy that encourages the slaughter of men, 
the ethics of the brute! We love America 
because she has made us acquainted with the 
good qualities in all nations, has revealed to 
us the supremacy of the human soul and on 
our brow placed freedom's matchless crown ! 
And at the time of our country's need she 
will not call on us in vain ! Whether it be in 
manhood or in money, at home or abroad, 
our citizens will respond whenever they are 
wanted, especially those of German birth, for 
this is : 



34 



"Your flag and my flag and how much it holds: 
Your land and my land, secure within its folds. 
Rose-red and blood-red the stripes forever gleam, 
Snow-white and soul- white, the good forefathers' 

dream ! 
Sky-blue and true blue with stars that gleam aright, 
A mighty symbol in the day, a pilot through the 

night!" 



35 




An address delivered to the Rotary Club of St. 
Joseph, Mo., Aug. 13th, 1918. 

ON THE first day of August in the year 
1914 the world discovered that after 
nineteen centuries of Christian civih- 
zation we were nineteen centuries behind 
Jesus Christ ! Somehow we had lost sight of 
this fact. We had groped our way like som- 
nambulists and only awoke when the canons 
began to roar. We found ourselves at the 
edge of a precipice. "Men's hearts failing 
them for fear and for looking for those things 
which are coming upon the earth.'' We pulled 
ourselves together and began to think. Some 
said that Christianity had been a failure. 
But upon second consideration we arrived at 
a saner conclusion. We had been a failure 
because we had discarded Christianity. In 
spite of the common God we worshipped, in 

37 



spite of our catechisms and Confessions of 
Faith we had confined religion to the church 
and had recommended it for limited use. 
Commerce had taken little note of it and cer- 
tain statesmen had no more of it than you 
could blow through a quill in a mosquito's eye 
without making it wink. Unless we should 
be able to produce a radical change all 'round, 
our doom seemed certain. It is due to the 
statesmanship of President Wilson that a re- 
turn to Christ was pointed to as the one 
thing needful. Some years ago W. E. Glad- 
stone had told us that the wheel of history 
must swing around the Gospel. You Rotar- 
ians — many spokes and one wheel — make 
business swing around the Golden Rule. That 
is the hub. But I have never heard a more 
distinct call to righteousness and truth than 
that issued by the present occupant of the 
White House. He speaks of mercy and jus- 
tice. He considers "the least" of these our 
brethren. He would use his strong hand not 
to knock down, but to lift up. Identifying 
his statesmanship with the principles of 
Jesus he holds the torch that illumines the 
world. 



I am not sure that this fact has been fully- 
appreciated. Certainly not in Germany. 
There it is ridiculed as baseless ''camouflage." 
It is branded as hypocrisy. But what else 
was to be expected ? A man who will tell his 
soldiers that at his command they must shoot 
their own brothers and sisters has never 
seen the gentle Christ. And when he talks 
of God such words seem idle blasphemy. Our 
mind is the window through which we see the 
world. As all things are pure to the pure, so 
cynicism paints the whole world black. 

But in charity to the skeptic it must be 
admitted that our ideals startled all the 
world. The great majority rejoiced at this 
new turn of events. It was wonderfully satis- 
factory to those nobler souls who in grief had 
witnessed the sordidness of modern life. 
They lifted up their heads, for their redemp- 
tion drew nigh. But the hardened diplomats 
were not sure that they could trust their ears. 
They slunk back into darkness and mur- 
mured : 

'The message well I hear ; 

If I could but believe it." 

There seemed to be no precedent for an atti- 

39 



tude of altruism on the part of a great na- 
tion. Conquest had been the ruling passion. 
The superman had reigned supreme. History 
is a multitudinous Calvary where the inno- 
cent dies for the guilty. Complacently we 
read of Caesar and Alexander, forgetting the 
millions who perished in the strife. Since 
Cain slew Abel the world has adopted fratri- 
cide as a convenient policy. The story is told 
that one of the Pharaohs was offered the in- 
vention of steam. He could use it to lift 
stones into the pyramid. But he waved his 
hand and said that.it was cheaper to employ 
slaves. It matters not whether this is a fable 
or a fact. Certain it is that love was a for- 
eigner in the Egyptian court. We might as- 
sume that the advent of Christ would change 
this ruthless law. But wars continued. The 
Borgias in Italy and France, Cortez in Mexico, 
Pizarro in Peru, what are they but tigers 
Strangling the lamb? Germany herself w^as 
devastated for thirty years by a religious 
war that has no equal in history. Back of it 
all was the desire for conquest and for gold. 
In denouncing this policy the British states- 
man uncovers its source: "w^hen slavery 

40 



brought in 100 per cent, while it was seen to 
be immoral, not all the navies of the world 
could stop it. When it brought 200 per cent 
it became a peculiar institution, patterned 
after the system of the patriarchs. When it 
brought 300 per cent master and slave be- 
came a Christian relation and slavery was 
baptized with quotations from the Old Testa- 
ment." Our thoughts should inspire our ac- 
tions, but, unfortunately, our actions inspire 
our thoughts. Napoleon boldly stated that 
God was on the side of the heaviest artillery. 
When missionaries landed in China the ships 
that brought them held opium as well as 
Bibles. The souls of the ignorant were first 
bought with the blood of Christ and then sold 
for the gold of the devil. The history of 
civilization is full of such events. They are 
too numerous to mention. But it is of inter- 
est to note that out of such records the Ger- 
man war lords construed their present policy. 
Bismarck and William II, however they might 
have differed in other matters, agreed in this 
respect. Both believed in the right of the 
sword. They knew no higher law. 

President Wilson believes that "the old or- 

41 



der changeth, giving way to new." He is 
convinced that henceforth the world will be 
free. He has gone so far that he has spoken 
of a Federation of Nations after the present 
war. He has even intimated that the day 
may be at hand when with universal disarm- 
ament peace will forever reign. And while 
in some quarters such a message may sound 
idealistic, it is not altogether without some 
basis in fact. I rejoice in the thought that 
America has never drawn her sword to op- 
press another nation. When Washington 
fought England he was so clearly in the right 
that Englands greatest statesman defended 
his course. It was Pitt who said that if three 
million colonists were willing to bow their 
heads in slavery, they would endanger the 
safety of the world. It was a war for liberty ; 
it was a holy war. The conflict between the 
North and the South presents a still loftier 
spectacle. When we see the flower of Ameri- 
can manhood perishing that the poor blacks 
might be free we have the picture of Christ 
washing the feet of His disciples. Consider 
America's fight against Spain. Did McKin- 
ley encourage conquest ? Nay, Cuba v/as freed 

42 



and her territory left untouched. As to the 
Philippine Islands, it was clearly understood 
that their possession would be but temporary, 
pending the daj^ when the natives would be 
able to take hold of their own. In de- 

fence of Venezuela America nearly got into 
war with Great Britain. To guard the rights 
of South America she issued the Monroe doc- 
trine. While, after the Boxer uprising, Eu- 
rope was clamoring for indemnity, this coun- 
try waved all money considerations. I say, I 
rejoice in the records of American history 
which cannot be equalled by those of any 
other nation on the face of the earth. 

And when we speak of a Federation of Na- 
tions and of a general disarmament, we are 
not quite as visionary as we may appear. One 
hundred years ago President Monroe issued 
a proclamation limiting American armed 
forces on the Great Lakes. It was arranged 
that both Canada and the United States 
should have two boats each with a crew not 
exceeding twenty-six men to guard the fron- 
tier. The arrangement has worked. Three 
thousand miles of border have remained un- 
protected by any kind of a fort. Nobody was 

43 



loaded and nothing exploded. Wars have 
been averted. 

The blood of our boys shall not have flown 
in vain. Out of this conflict must rise the 
dawn of universal peace ! The heavy price is 
worthy of a grand result : 

"As He died to make men holy 
Let us live to make men free !" 

It is eminently proper, therefore, that the 
President of this great Republic should be 
the first to herald the dawn, to point the way, 
to light the torch of peace! 

And we believe that his voice is not merely 
national; it has been echoed the wide world 
'round. Especially this is the case in France. 
There, too, the new spirit is taking life. The 
land which has given us Zola, Flaubert and 
Maupassant is returning to the idealism of 
Joan of Arc and to the prophecies of Victor 
Hugo. It is strange that Voltaire, a French- 
man, should have besmirched the character 
of the Maid of Orleans and that Schiller, a 
German, should have first hailed her star. 
But such are the facts. They prove that 
great souls live in every land and that truth 

44 



knows no limitations. Not all the Huns are 
in Germany. Old Glory symbolizes an ideal 
and there are those in every country who 
love this flag. It was Victor Hugo who in 
1870 spoke of the time when the ^'United 
States of Europe" would clasp across the 
ocean the hand of the United States of Amer- 
ica. Noble dreamer, how much thou wouldst 
have given to witness all the world made 
free! 

If Germany will not see this vision, she 
must be made to see it. We shall not tolerate 
terrorism in our midst. We are tired of 
bloodshed and bayonets. Mothers do not 
raise their sons to be shot down by Krupp 
guns ! There is sorrow enough in this world 
without the devil and his diplomats ! It would 
be better that every throne in Christendom 
should totter than that another young life 
should be prematurely blown out by the blast 
of war! I am sure that there are human 
hearts on German soil that bleed as much as 
ours. In a printed lecture which appeared 
some twenty years ago my father closes with 
these eloquent words : "If Germany will per- 
sist in deserting the altars of God, if she will 

45 



deliberately abandon the principles of the 
Gospel, if the lust of gold and the desire for 
conquest will continue to monopolize her 
mind I need not be a prophet to say that the 
day of judgment is near. Neither our army 
nor our navy, neither our commercial gran- 
deur nor the emperor's power can stem the 
tide of destruction. It will be the end of Ger- 
many." You can imagine that many a time 
in these dark days I have recalled those 
words. They have grown large with mean- 
ing. Yes, there are people in Germany who 
have a vision of the truth. But there are 
others who cannot be convinced except by 
force. Many a convict gazes out of his prison 
cells not because he has visions of moral re- 
form, but because he is looking for the kit of 
tools with which he can cut his way out. For 
such we have another remedy. The war lords 
have a set of figures : Agriculture pays 8 per 
cent, commerce 15 per cent, wars 100 per 
cent. As long as these figures will prove cor- 
rect war will oppress the world. It behooves 
us to prove that wars are the poorest invest- 
ment on earth and we have reason to hope 



46 



that the traffickers in blood will at last see 
the light! 

No, it is not moonshine and sentimental- 
ism when Wilson speaks of the World Peace. 
It is ideal, but it is practical. The man who 
asserts that it is not practical would have to 
doubt the words of the Master that at last 
He would draw all men unto Him. 

People have wondered how I could drift 
away from the land of my birth and repu- 
diate my relationship. They point to the fact 
that one of my brothers is a chaplain in the 
German army, that my cousin is a German 
admiral and that my father is a bishop in a 
German diocese. They argue that every hu- 
man being loves the home of his childhood 
and that my attitude is puzzling and abnor- 
mal. I want to say in reply that I was always 
taught to place my religion above everything 
and that when I am asked to decide between 
what is clearly wrong and what is clearly 
right I refuse to hesitate. I know that duty 
is sometimes hard. I understand why tears 
are streaming down the cheeks of Schuman- 
Heinck— one of her sons with the Kaiser and 
two under Old Glory. I say, I understand her 



47 



tears as she sings 'The Star Spangled Ban- 
ner." Surely, the mother heart is rent asun- 
der. Have not I a mother living in Germany 
and a father and sisters and brothers ? Years 
have passed since I have heard from them. 
But if a letter from home could come to me, 
what would it say? I know what it would 
say. It would say : "My son, this is a terrible 
war; all the more so because the family is 
divided under different flags. But since you 
have chosen America be true to the land of 
your adoption. Be loyal ; be worthy ! Stain not 
the family record with the name of a trai- 
tor!" I tell you that there are great souls 
this wide world over. There are true Ameri- 
cans who do not live in this land. Wherever 
men love righteousness and truth, wherever 
they demand justice and fair play, there is 
the flag that we love, there waves Old Glory ! 
Let me congratulate you on your citizen- 
ship ! Today more than ever the mighty tides 
of God are sweeping over our land and flow- 
ers of rarest beauty are springing into life. 
Not long ago it was said that we cared for 
nothing but money, that if the Yankee boy 
would see a dollar on the other side of hell 

48 



he would make a bee line for it and the Yan- 
kee girl would hold on to his coat tails. That 
day has passed. In the America of tomor- 
row manhood will be mightier than money. 
Our "eyes have seen the glory of the Lord !" 



49 



Our Heritage 



An address delivered to the Kansas City Society of 
the Sons of Revolution Feb. 25th, 1917. 

THEY who honor their fathers honor 
themselves. You have come here to 
link the present to the past. You real- 
ize that today is the child of yesterday and 
the parent of tomorrow. You know that 
civilization is a great tree whose roots are 
in the thoughts and deeds of the noble dead 
and whose branches reach out into the great 
unknown. To the extent of your hold on 
this fact, you possess true culture. Without 
a history to contemplate and without a vision 
of things to come we move like shadows be- 
tween blank walls. The stars of the soul are 
Memory and Hope. 

Yours is a special heritage. You are the 
descendants of noble sires. You trace your 
origin to the dauntless pioneers of the Ameri- 

51 



can dawn. Your forebears were not man- 
made kings. They wore no crowns of gold. 
They held no sceptres. They did not tyran- 
nize their brothers. Yet they were born to 
the purple. Theirs was the royalty of right- 
eousness. Their grandeur was character. 
Their majesty was of the soul. The heroes 
of the Mayflower, the prophets of freedom, 
the martyrs of Bunker Hill, the writers of 
the American Constitution — these are the 
sires whose glory thrills your hearts. 

We live in the age of democracy. But the 
aristocracy of noble ideals will never die. 
While crowns are fading and thrones are tot- 
tering, genius continues to rule. The great 
thinkers, Plato, Paul Pascal ; the great poets, 
Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe; the great 
statesmen, Washington, Lincoln, Gladstone 
— woe to the age that fails to pay them 
homage ! Everyone who helps to uplift man- 
kind has royal blood in his veins. "Thou hast 
made us kings," says St. John, "and we shall 
reign on the earth !" 

God planned democracy for the Jews. He 
wanted them to live as the children of the 
divine fatherhood. Their law : the Ten Com- 

52 



mandments; their ideal: the kingtlom of 
heaven. 

But Israel murmured and demanded a king. 
This accounts for Saul, David and Solomon. 
They ruled because the age was not ripe for 
democracy. **Milk for babes," says St. Paul, 
and Christ declares that God has tolerated 
Jewish perversion because of "the hardness 
of their hearts." Eventually the little stream 
of human rebellion will merge into the ocean 
of infinite truth. When a discussion arose 
among the disciples who should have a seat 
of honor at the table Jesus administered a 
stinging rebuke to the would-be aristocrats 
by himself washing the feet of all present. 
Paul proclaimed the gospel of equality when 
he said that henceforth there should be no 
more Jews or pagans, rich or poor, high or 
low, and that all were one family in the 
household of God. These truths were revo- 
lutionary. 'They have turned the world up- 
side down." Not until fifteen centuries latef 
the Wittenberg monk proclaimed the sov- 
reignty of every soul, humanity began to real- 
ize the significance of Christ's Gospel. Hence- 
forth no church authority will dare to stand 

53 



between man and his Maker. Each soul is 
supreme before the tribunal of God. Thus 
came the dawn of spiritual democracy. 

To establish this truth in a new country, 
Columbus was called out of obscurity. The 
Lord of heaven guided the Santa Maria and 
saw to it that she reached her destination. 
America at once moved into the foreground 
of history. Here the divine ideal was to be 
worked out. Men would flock here from every 
part of the globe. Races trained in enmity 
would meet and mingle as brothers. When 
the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock the 
Pilgrim Fathers recognized the invisible 
pilot. They knew that God had been their 
help. They would establish a republic based 
on the principles of the Gospel. Listen to 
the public declaration : "this nation, UNDER 
GOD." There are those who would strike 
the word *'God" out of the Constitution. But 
as long as we have sons of those early set- 
tlers the memory of great sires shall not be 
outraged! They who built our country on 
the Rock of Ages "builded better than they 
knew." A democracy without God is a house 



54 



without a foundation, a tree without a root, 
a bulb without a dynamo ! 

This is an annual service commemorative 
of the birth of George Washington. Surely 
a man divinely planned! As history sails 
away from the past and lesser heights of hu- 
manity vanish on the receding shore George 
Washington stands out in solitary grandeur. 
This mountain is clearly visible among the 
clouds of yesterday. What was the great 
merit of Washington? He realized that 
America had her own ideals and that Euro- 
pean interference would be fatal to her exist- 
ence. He knew that the lofty principles of 
freedom were at stake. Behind the dream 
of the Pilgrim Fathers he placed the sword 
of the soldier and the genius of statesman- 
ship. If there is a God of battles and a Ruler 
of the universe we cannot but glory in the 
visible and mighty assistance he gave to our 
cause when it was endangered by English 
oppression. Humanly speaking it was a con- 
flict most unequal. But America had a divine 
mission and every Revolutionary soldier felt 
the inspiration which Joshua breathed into 



55 



the Hebrew army when he said : "One man of 
you shall slay a thousand!" 

When we mention our flag we think of our 
fathers ; we remember Yorktown and Gettys- 
burg. Whatever has been accomplished for 
this nation has been accomplished by the 
heroes of yesterday. The roll of our martyrs 
brings back the shadowy past. Behold their 
flag ! It is red, white and blue. The red is a 
symbol of the blood they shed ; the white ex- 
presses the purity of their ideals; the blue 
the nobility of their manhood. Affectionately 
we place the colors upon their dust, while 
their souls are marching on ! 

But while I am speaking you hear the roll 
of distant thunder. All Europe is aflame 
with war. Shall we, too, be involved in this 
maelstrom of horrors ? The day may not be 
distant when you will be called upon to make 
sacrifices. The flag will be unfurled for bat- 
tle. The nation will sift her manhood. There 
will be a division of wheat and chaff. When 
our money has been given, when our sons 
have been sacrificed, when our lives have 
been consecrated, then we shall be justified 
in hugging Old Glory to our hearts and to 

56 



say: "Not only their flag, but my flag. I, too, 
have paid the price !" 

Note that I make no distinction between 
you and myself. I do not belong to your so- 
ciety. I was born in Europe. But while 
there are no ties of blood between me and the 
Pilgrim Fathers, I am in very truth a son of 
the Revolution and an heir of American 
ideals. When the great Master met Nico- 
demus he shattered material standards with 
the declaration : 'That which is flesh, is flesh, 
and that which is spirit, is spirit." Applying 
this to the present argument, what does it 
mean? It means that it takes more than a 
pedigree and a family Bible to make a Son of 
the Revolution. What is the accident of 
birth when the soul is out of tune? There 
are Aaron Burrs and Benedict Arnolds in 
mansions of noblest ancestry. The glory of 
our Republic consists in the fact that we 
recognize infinite possibilities in the lowliest 
bootblack. If anyone calls himself a son of 
the Revolution and uses this proud distinc- 
tion to draw a line between man and man, he 
thereby becomes unworthy of the very dis- 
tinction he claims. That all men were born 

57 



equal is the cornerstone of the American 
credo. Destroy it and the Republic falls. If 
you are true sons of your sires, you will draw 
your swords for the principles you profess. 
You will not aspire to the shams of aristoc- 
racy. You will claim no more nor less than 
the honor of being plain citizens. In doing 
that you honor your forebears and are 
worthy to carry their flag. Woe to America 
when she begins to ape Europe! We have 
ideals of our own. We have a history. When 
Napoleon visited the tomb of Frederick the 
Great someone suggested that the Corsican 
might appropriate the Prussian's sword. In- 
dignantly Napoleon waved his hand, 'Tool, I 
have my own sword!" Whenever Europe 
would ask us to follow her way let us remem- 
ber this saying. Look through the Almanac 
de Gotha. Count So and So, Baron X, His 
Highness, etc. In this carneval of conceit let 
us rise like men and be proud in affirming: 
"I am a plain American." 

And if you are a plain American, you are 
the peer of any prince that ever usurped a 
throne! Because I am heart and soul with 
the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, be- 

68 



cause I love the Constitution, because my 
spirit is attuned to that of George Washing- 
ton, I am as truly a son of the Revolution as 
the President of your honored society. Some- 
one interrupted Christ and said, *Thy mother 
and thy brethren stand without." And he 
answered : *'My mother and my brethren are 
these which hear the word of God and do it." 
The real sons of the Revolution are they who 
personify the spirit of the early Americans. 
It is for this reason that you and I are one. 
When you asked me — the foreign-born — to 
address you this morning you knew that our 
differences were purely formal and that in 
reality we were made of the same full-orbed 
Americanism. We meet in the soul of George 
Washington. 

The past rises before me. I look upon it 
as one standing on the summit and reviewing 
the mountain. 

"In an age on ages telling 
To be living is sublime!" 

Moses, the cornerstone. The Decalogue an 
unerring foundation. Centuries have rolled 
by, but none can surpass this moral code. 

59 



While giving the Commandments the legisla- 
tor dreams of the future. He dies with visions 
of the promised land. 

Isaiah, the pathfinder. Around him chaos. 
Nation rising against nation. Israel follow- 
ing false Gods. But in the distance he sees 
the dawn. The lion will peacefully lie down 
beside the lamb. Swords will be turned into 
plough shares and spears into pruning hooks. 
He leaves his star in the dark of history. 

Christ on Mt. Olivet. His first word: 
"Blessed !" Gone are the clouds of Mt. Sinai 
and Love illumines the sky! "Greater love 
hath no man than that he lay down his life 
for his friends !" 

Savonarola on the scaffold. He would free 
Christianity of corruption. His body is 
burned, but his soul goes on, and rises anew 
in the monk of Erfurt. 

Luther appears with the Bible in his arm. 
Every man accountable for his own soul. This 
means religious liberty. 

Columbus crossing the unknown seas. He 
discovers the country where Luther's ideals 
shall be perpetuated. 

The progressives of many lands arrive at 

60 



our shores. They are pilgrims, pioneers. 
They came to worship God according to their 
own conscience. They have no king but God. 

The fall of the Bastille. Tyranny trembles. 
A tide of democracy touches the shore of 
every land. Over the crumbling bulwarks of 
feudalism arises the flag of freedom. 

But what France attained through a civil 
war was given to the American colonies by 
the statesmanship of George Washington. 
No guillotine was reared in our midst. It was 
a war against foreign foes. But at home we 
had a united people. 

How many stars in our horizon : Hamilton, 
Jefferson, Patrick Henry! The spirit of 
Nathan Hale ! the courage of Paul Jones ! The 
genius of Andrew Jackson ! And as we turn 
the page new names arrest our attention. 
Longfellow, the poet. Beecher, the orator. 
Grant, the soldier; Lee, the gentleman. Lin- 
coln, the incomparable! Within a century 
and a half what marvelous constellations, 
what illustrious names, what glorious attain- 
ments! Philanthropists like Peter Cooper, 
inventors like Edison, scientists like Burbank. 
A continent vast in resources of every kind. 

61 



A mingling of all races. A civilization com- 
bining the virtures of many lands. All na- 
tionalities merged in the grand ideal — sym- 
bolical of the kingdom where there shall be 
but one shepherd and one flock! 

But words are nothing. They merely sug- 
gest the wealth still unrevealed. It is your 
mission, gentlemen, to treasure this heritage ; 
be sons of the Revolution not merely in name 
but in fact ! What does this mean ? It means 
that you are to protect the ancestral trust. 
Hand it not over to designing politicians ! De- 
liver it not to the demagogue! Defend it 
against foreign foes! When Wellington 
threatened the French Guard and asked them 
to surrender he received the reply: "The 
Guard will die; it will not surrender." This 
was the spirit of '76. Let it be the spirit of 
1917 ! Thus George Washington will be more 
than a venerable name. He will be a living 
force in the hearts of this generation and 
the heritage which he left will be handed 
down to our childrens children till all the 
world will follow freedom's star! 



62 



Uncle Sam Using His Man Power 



Commencement address delivered at the Central 
High School, Kansas City, Mo., June, 1917. 

THE GRADUATES of this school have 
reached a milestone. Behind them a 
period of preparation. Before them 
life with its innumerable duties. They are 
standing on the threshold. As they look 
ahead they face the question : "Which way ?" 
The fact that hitherto they have gone stead- 
ily forward would indicate that they will 
move on in the right direction. We know 
that life tends toward sameness. The first 
seven years of childhood are supremely im- 
portant. Youth lays the foundation. We 
are justified in thinking that the certificate 
you hold is an index to your soul. You are 
progressives. You will not drift with the 
idlers, the loafers, the parasites. You will 
fill a useful place in the world. You will 

65 



carry a stone to the pyramid of civilization. 
You will add to the wealth of mankind. Great 
has been your effort in the past. Greater 
will be your task in the future. To graduate 
does not mean to "finish." This is Commence- 
ment Day. 

The Duke of Wellington declared that the 
battle of Waterloo was won on the play- 
grounds of the Eton School. The training he 
received there equipped him for his mighty 
triumph. 

You graduate in times that try men's souls. 
Your country is at war. Our democracy is 
on trial. A steady stream of the nation's 
manhood is proceeding to far-off battlefields. 
That which we thought of as a nightmare 
has become an accomplished fact. Men are 
preparing to kill each other. Civilization has 
become a welter of blood. Some of you will 
enlist. You will be soldiers under our glori- 
ous flag. But others will stay at home. Tasks 
equally important demand their attention. 
One fact is certain. Whether we go or stay, 
we must do something. The country has no 
room for drones. Uncle Sam will make use 
of his man power. 

66 



Consider the change that has taken place. 
Not long ago the American man cared for 
nothing but himself. He made money, built 
skyscrapers, fondled his golf stick and lived 
in supremest luxury. Not so today. We 
gauge manhood no longer by what we can 
get, but by what we can give. Every idle 
dollar is branded as an enemy alien. If the 
blood of our young men is not too precious 
to be offered on the country's altar, what of 
silver and gold? Compared to the sacrifices 
of our youth, all wealth appears as miserable 
pelf. I well understand the reply of the 
father whose boys were facing shot anid 
shell. He was talking to a neighbor who com- 
plained because the war had deprived him of 
a chance of making money. "Sir," he ex- 
claimed, "all that I have in this wide world 
is trembling in the balances and you talk to 
me of your filthy dollars !" One thing is so 
clear that even bats and moles can see it. 
The dollar has ceased to be "almighty." 

And what is true of American manhood is 
equally true of American womanhood. Not 
long ago our ladies spent their time in squan- 
dering money. They rode in French limou- 

67 



sines, gave tea parties, killed time and com- 
peted in dress parades. Food enough was 
wasted to feed all Europe. But this, too, is a 
thing of the past. The great woman of today 
has learned to knit, to sew, to serve. She has 
become an expert in cooking. Whether she 
solicitis for starving Armenians, entertains 
the ''Sammies," dons the uniform of a nurse 
or figures how she can deduct a nickel from 
her grocery bill, she is great to the extent 
that she saves and serves. 

This is the mighty American Revolution of 
the year 1917, as significant, as important, 
as beneficent as any great movement in our 
history ! The old order changeth, giving way 
to new! Accumulation was the watchword 
of the past. Service is the motto of today. 
After centuries of infidelity to our religious 
heritage we have come back to the Master's 
declaration: **He that is greatest is he that 
serves !" 

It is natural, therefore, that you have 
caught the spirit of the hour. You feel that 
you must do something to aid your country. 
You will not be slackers. In Paris you find 
Delaroche's "Court of Genius." It illustrates 

68 



the meaning of service. The central figure 
welcomes all those who have given something 
to the world. A laurel for the patriot, the 
poet, the musician, the soldier, the philan- 
thropist ! But through the crack in the door 
the glutton beholds this wonderful group. 
He has not the courage to enter. He has 
made no mark, not even an effort. He is a 
superfluous pawn on the chess board. He 
has wasted time and talent. He is a cancer- 
ous growth in the human organism. Death 
throws him into oblivion. I tell you, my 
friends, that no man is so poorly endowed 
that he can afford to squander his time whit- 
tling sticks and spitting tobacco juice ! It is 
true that we cannot all be Caesars, Dantes, 
Angelos, Mozarts or Savanarolas. For every 
ten-talent man God makes millions that have 
less than one talent. It seems that Lincoln 
is not far from right when he says that, "God 
must love the common people because he 
made so many of them." But remember this. 
The humble task is as essential as the big one. 
Pershing represents our army. But he is 
doing no more than the lowliest private suf- 
fering in the trenches. Not all our boys will 



come home ,vith decorations. But God is 
mindful of His own. He sees the glory of 
the forgotten hero. He knows that shoulder 
straps do not always indicate merit. He 
knows that there are divine souls on earth 
who '^sweep the house to the glory of God." 
Surely quaint was the philosophy of the hod- 
carrier. "Are you working hard?" queried 
the stranger. 0, I am just carrying bricks 
to the top of the building. The fellow on the 
roof does all the work.' Emerson has re- 
corded a dialogue between the squirrel and 
the mountain. Says the mountain to the 
squirrel: "You cannot carry forests on your 
back." Answers the squirrel: "Neither can 
you crack a nut." 

"Let me do my work from day to day, 

In field or forest, at the desk or loom, 

In roaring market place or tranquil room; 

Let me but find it in my heart to say, 

When vagrant wishes beckon me astray. 

This is my work — my blessing, not my doom; 

Of all who live I am the one by whom 

This work can best be done in the right way." 

But we have a right to assume that you 
have risen beyond the average. You have 
finished the High School. The master minds 
of the past have given you of their w^isdom. 

70 



The State has paid your way. You are privi- 
leged and set aside. And while we admit that 
even the plainest and most ignorant are per- 
forming valuable service we are also certain 
that intelligence plus is an asset in any situa- 
tion. Whether you go into the White House 
or into the kitchen, whether you write edi- 
torials or plough corn, whether you shoulder 
a gun or build a ship, education will facilitate 
labor and hasten results. Will you pay back 
your debt to the State which reared these 
buildings, to the parents who eased your 
path, to the nation that believes in free citi- 
zens and free schools? 

Uncle Sam depends on his man power. The 
Master has need of you. Ships must be built, 
trains must be run, armies must be equipped. 
The task is infinite. To feed the babies, to do 
the chores, to dam the socks, to wash the 
dishes, to edit the papers, to teach the chil- 
dren, to write to the soldiers, to improve the 
roads, to watch the politicians — nothing must 
remain undone. Civilization is a chain of 
many links. Neglect one and the chain is 
broken. Never before have we so keenly ap- 
preciated the scriptural axiom: "the eye 

71 



cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of 
thee; nor again the head of the feet, I have 
no need of you." I have noticed that what- 
ever finger I bruised always appeared to be 
the most indispensable of all the digits. And 
whenever a certain class of laborers strike 
we discover how necessary was their contri- 
bution to the general welfare. It is proper 
and right that when our whole civilization is 
at stake every hand, every eye, every foot, 
every mind is being conscripted for the sal- 
vation of the country. When the boys re- 
turn from the front they will roll back their 
sleeves or their collars and show the scars 
they received in fighting the foe. Will you 
and I have anything to prove that we par- 
took in the struggle and made some sacri- 
fices for the rights of men- 
There are two lines of defense. One in 
France. That line is formed by the boys in 
khaki and we pray that it may hold. The 
second line of defense is at home. It means 
you and me. It furnishes the morale to the 
soldier. Behind the eye that aims at the 
enemy is the heart cheered by a sweetheart's 
"God-speed." Behind the heroism of the 

72 



trenches is the prayer of a faithful mother! 
We are one nation indivisible. We need the 
hand, the head and the heart. We need life, 
light and love. We must fight, farm or 
finance! Someone was carried away by 
patriotism and exclaimed "every drop of my 
blood is red, white and blue!" Certain it is 
that the great need of the hour are American 
men and women with plenty of red corpuscles 
in their blood. The most dangerous appendix 
to our civilization is the I. W. W. "If any 
would not work, neither should he eat." 

And the spirit of work is here to stay. Our 
boys are in touch with other countries. They 
see France and her wondrous civilization. 
They will see perfect highways, masterpieces 
of art. They will see beautified farms and 
cities ideally planned. They will return with 
visions enlarged. They will bring to their 
country whatever is worthy of imitation. 
After destruction has run its course, recon- 
struction will begin with passionate zeal. 
Well may I congratulate you on your youth. 
You will take part in the coming renaissance. 
What you have learned in these halls will 



73 



equip you for the giant's task. You will be 

the leaders of tomorrow. 

It is difficult to say just what is the work 
best adapted to our tendencies. Man is not 
like a sewing machine which comes to the 
house with a book of directions. Reading the 
pages the seamstress can easily follow in- 
structions. But the babe is a myster\^ to the 
mother. Robert Burns and Martin Luther, 
William Shakespeare and Peter Dummy, all 
make their debut as pudgy protoplasms. 
Wliat was the intention of the Creator ? Our 
birth is as silent as the sphynx. The book of 
life will not open its pages. By struggle we 
discover one syllable after another until we 
find ourselves in a congenial sphere. It is a 
great day when you understand your mission 
on earth. And this is the rule: Not by 
thought, but by action we come into our own. 
Doing the duty that lies nearest the circle of 
our usefulness will gradually broaden until 
at last we tit into our environment like a cap- 
stone on the pyramid. The fact that you 
graduate proves that you were worthy of the 
pri^'ileges of education. 

Freely you have received, freely give ! Let 

74 



others share the light that is within you. Be 
leaders of those who need guidance. Our 
country has great faith in human nature. It 
trusts itself to the voter. It places its wel- 
fare into the hands of the people. Every 
ballot should be a lift. But it may be a dag- 
ger. Power in the hands of a criminal is a 
terrible thing. A fool entrusted with a torch 
may become an incendiary. In a monarchy 
every advantage is given to the ruler. He 
listens to great teachers of law, of science, 
of art, of statesmanship. He rises above his 
fellowmen like a giant above dwarfs. But in 
a democracy we try to make a giant of the 
lowliest man. Surely a mighty task. Your 
government needs your help. You can be 
useful in training the ignorant that he may 
understand his privileges as a citizen. You 
may inspire him with the vision of his coun- 
try's splendor. You can share with him the 
mental and moral food whhich you so freely 
received. Here is your chance. America has 
the grain, the forests, the prairies, the ore, 
the cattle and the population. But all the 
wealth will not suffice when ignorance and 
graft control the ballot. 

75 



I am certain that if every man, v/oman and 
child in this Republic will do their part in 
this critical hour we shall not only utterly 
crush the conqueror's design, but we shall 
rise from this war the most efficient people 
in the world. There has been too much ex- 
travagance, too much idleness, too much 
waste, too much graft. The storm has broken 
and the atmosphere is being swept clean of 
its foul ingredients. Uncle Sam is calling us. 
Let every one put his hand to the plough. 
We have adopted the motto: "Do your bit!" 
But this means limitation. It is better to 
say: ''Do your best!" Not how little, but 
how much ! After his famous reply to Hayne 
Webster was generally applauded as the 
greatest orator of his time. But amid the 
general congratulations an old farmer took 
the speaker's hand and said : "Dan, you have 
not done your best yet." This gave Webster 
food for thought. A wonderful oration, but 
not yet the best ! 

In this spirit I want you to go forth. You 
have graduated. You have done well. Your 
parents are proud of you. Your school gives 
you a certificate. But the best of life is yet 

76 



to be, the last for which the first was made ! 
With your equipment comes your grand op- 
portunity. Your country has need of you. 
Go wherever the flag calls you. Whether the 
task be menial or mental, civil or military, 
be not a shirker ! "Whatever thy hands find 
to do, do it with thy might !" 



77 



The Climax of History 



Chautaqua lecture at Blue Hill, Neb., 
Aug. 4th, 1918. 

THIS is a nation of peace-lovers. Our 
land is rich enough and vast enough 
and generous enough to give every man 
a chance to live. We open our harbors to 
newcomers from all directions. We believe 
in the ballot, not in the bayonet. A short 
time ago we had no army and our navy was 
altogether insignificant. Aeroplanes did not 
exist. We tried a few of them and they did 
not seem to work. Europe looked on and 
was amused. 

But a great change has taken place. We 
are in the midst of the war. Our shipyards 
are busy as bee hives. The woodman's ax is 
heard in the forest. All hands are at work 
on the farms. We need grain, cattle, horses, 

79 



timber, cotton, wool, copper, iron. We hear 
the ringing of the Liberty Bell : 

"To arms, ye sons of light, 
And fight for freedom's right, 
A new day breaks, 
The world awakes 
To crush oppression's might; 
We'd rather die for liberty 
Than live secure in slavery; 
Red, White and Blue- 
Brave, pure and true — 
Fight till the world is free!" 

Surely a marvelous transformation of our 
pacific land ! What has happened ? Millions 
of our young men are crossing the ocean. Our 
armies are breasting the storm. We hold 
our own against the military masters of the 
world. Nothing but the most unbearable 
provocation could have induced us to aban- 
don our time-honored policy of peace. For 
there are limits to pacifism. The story is 
told of a Christian gentlemen who was struck 
on the cheek by an unprincipled ruffian. "Why 
don't you live up to the Bible and offer the 
other cheek," queried the rowdy. "Very well," 
said the Christian, and he was struck again. 
"But now," he added while pulling off his 
coat, "I have fulfilled the Scriptures. Watch 

80 



your step." With a couple of wallops and up- 
per cuts he rolled Goliath over in the dust. 

Uncle Sam at war reminds me of the statue 
of Jupiter by Phidias. It is the gigantic fig- 
ure of a God in sitting posture. So vast are 
the dimensions that in case he should rise his 
head would stick through the roof. The 
world has witnessed this very spectacle. The 
most peaceful nation has begun to stretch 
itself and its shadow overtowers all Europe. 
A few days ago some of our troops met the 
Fourth Imperial Prussian Division. These 
are the Kaiser^s crack soldiers. But the boys 
in khaki held their own. What does this 
mean? It means that militarism as a meas- 
ure of efficiency is utterly futile. The Yanks 
are the equal of any soldiers in the world. 
After a few months' training they are more 
than a match for German, French or British 
troops with long records of preparation. No 
matter what terms will be agreed upon at the 
conclusion of the war our country is safe 
without militarism ! 

We are in the war. This is the outstanding 
fact. The day of discussion has passed. The 
hour for action has arrived. We are facing 

81 



what Cleveland calls, "a condition, not a 
theory." This is why we cannot tolerate dis- 
sent. Free speech is commendable, as long 
as it does not endanger the very existence of 
the government which makes free speech per- 
missible. He that kicks down the ladder on 
which he has climbed is both a fool and a 
knave. If Russia had offered a solid front to 
the enemy, she could never have been con- 
quered! If the Slavs had had the spirit of 
Belgium, they would be victors today! Put 
Bolshivekism on American soil and Old Glory 
would have to come down. As sure as self- 
preservation is the first law of life. Uncle 
Sam will not now tolerate the critic that tears 
down. Win we must and win we can be- 
neath the flag of loyalty ? 

There is nothing so good that it might not 
be better and there is nothing so bad that it 
could not be worse. And while we can con- 
ceive of no greater calamity than war, it be- 
hooves us to look for the silver lining of the 
cloud. It is unthinkable that such a mighty 
historical event should have happened with- 
out some divine purpose. I do not mean to 
hold God responsible for this conflict. I am 

82 



sure that the Infinite is not a party to the 
transaction. Above the battle 's din we hear 
the ancient pronunciamento : ''Blessed are 
the Peace-makers!" The Bible says, ''of- 
fences must come, but woe to the man by 
whom they come!" Christ had to be be- 
trayed, but that does not exonerate Judas. 
And while no remorse can wash blood from 
the hands of the war lords, we still hold that 
the world will rise like a Phoenix rejuvenated 
over its own ashes. God can make use of 
Caesar and of Napoeon. He allows Alexander 
to conquer Persia, thus scattering the knowl- 
edge of Greek. Shortly afterwards the New 
Testament, written in Greek, was received 
and appreciated by the conquered nations. 
Samson gathered honey from the dead lion. 
Not otherwise we shall have a purer and a 
nobler world because of this terrible slaugh- 
ter. The crosses marking the soldiers graves 
will be crosses of salvation. Like Calvary 
they will mean light and life. We have al- 
ready begun to "gather grapes of thorns and 
figs of thistles." 

The war has taught us to value the bless- 
ings of peace. It has taught us to appreciate 

83 



the land in which we live. It has called at- 
tention to the oneness of the human race. 
Even if we had stayed out of the war we 
should be sad and bowed down because of the 
orphans crying for their murdered fathers, 
the children made homeless by devastating 
arinies. You cannot have one half of the 
world in heaven and the other half in hell. 
God so linked heart to heart that whatever 
befalls the race befalls us all. I heard of 
three young men who were roped together 
as they climbed the Alps. One stumbled and 
fell, the second fell with him, the third got 
home safely. But at the little Alpine inn 
none would speak to him. The host shunned 
him. His sweetheart shunned him. His 
mother shunned him. A whisper was heard 
on every side: ''He cut the rope." No man 
lives unto himself. As a pain in the body 
will reach every nerve, so a disorder in hu- 
man society is bound to touch us all. We 
cannot cut the rope. 

The war has shown the glory of self-sacri- 
fice. People have learned to give. Self-denial 
has become a passion. A new meaning has 
been given to the petition : "Give us this day 

84 



our daily bread." We no longer take things 
for granted. We realize that we are con- 
stantly receiving life and nutriment by the 
grace of God. Waste is looked upon as a 
crime. In the dark sky there are innumerable 
stars. Surely the war has a divine purpose. 
What does it mean? 

This question is not irrelevant. It is su- 
preme in the human mind. We are so consti- 
tuted that we must know cause and effect. 
We look before and after. Unlike the cattle 
which is content to chew the cud, we inquire 
into the heart of things. "Whence" and 
"whither" are problems as old as humanity. 
They are not easily answered. Especially 
at the present moment, when civilizations 
totter and kingdoms perish, philosophy is 
hard pressed. How will the war end ? What 
will be the terms of peace ? What will be the 
effect of this period of destruction? Our 
statesmen are puzzled. Our prophets are si- 
lent. Just now the world looks like a laby- 
rinth. It is all confusion. No light, no exit. 
A few years ago Germany was considered 
the land of supreme efficiency. Our young 
people flocked to her universities, our scien- 

85 



tists studied her libraries, our city builders 
got maps of Hamburg and Dusseldorf . Down 
goes the idol with a crash! Our ministers 
copied Teuton theology, our thinkers lauded 
Nietzsche and Schopenhauer! That, too, is 
a thing of the past. We spoke of the pen- 
sions for the old, the kindergarten for the 
children, the paternalism which benefitted 
the German public. All of this is effaced from 
our minds. "Made in Germany" is no longer 
a label. It is considered a libel. Not long 
ago we were told that "Hell was made in 
Germany." 

In stating this fact I have no other pur- 
pose but to emphasize the fact that nothing 
human is permanent and that our highest at- 
tainments are but a mirage in the desert. 
Where is the glory that was Greece and 
where the splendor that was Rome? Where 
are the idols of the Twentieth Century ? Lost 
in the scrap pile of oblivion ! The great trou- 
ble of modern civilization was its God-defy- 
ing arrogance. Like those who rebelled 
against their Maker and built the tower of 
Babel, we have reared the building without 
the Master Mason. The design was faulty 

86 



and the hurricane has blown it away! We 
have planned a program without the Christ 
and the program has utterly failed. Cynics 
and atheists have held the rudder. The 
philosophy of Bernard Shaw has permeated 
England. France has listened to Zola. Ger- 
many has bowed to Nietzsche. Whatever 
difference there may be between these men, 
they are alike in that they have no faith in 
God and no love for the Sermon on the Mount. 
Ask me what these writers have to do with 
the war and I shall answer: "As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so he is." I can give 
you an index to your soul when I look at the 
books on your library shelf. There is a close 
relation between hand and head. The French 
Revolution would not and could not have 
taken place had not a man named Rousseau 
written a certain book that made possible 
this mighty upheaval. 

But back of Zola, Shaw and Nietzsche there 
is a still darker shadow. I am referring to that 
science, falsely so called, which would drag 
man to the level of the brute. It began with 
Charles Darwin, was perpetuated by Huxley 
and Spencer and reached the apex of absurd- 

87 



ity in Earnest Haeckel of Germany. Gen- 
erally speaking these men took the vim out 
of our idealism. They told us that we were 
nothing but animals, that the soul was not 
immortal, that morality was a matter of ex- 
pediency, that "the struggle for existence" 
and "self-preservation" accounted for prac- 
tically everything in human history. When 
their theories were universally accepted, is 
it a wonder that the ethics of the jungle have 
monopolized the stage? If we are superior 
guerillas, why should we have any credo save 
"might makes right ?" The big fish swallows 
the little one. The big nation overrides Bel- 
gium. Militarism means new claws for the 
beast; why not have militarism? The eagle 
takes the hawk, the hawk the sparrow, the 
sparrow the worm. Let us all be eagles ! Let 
us all be supermen! This was the ruling 
philosophy. The world became a grab bag. 
The mailed fist held sway. 

In a general way this policy has been the 
policy of all great nations. Not long ago 
President Wilson referred to the Congress of 
Vienna and called its deliberations "covenants 
of selfishness and compromise." Russia, 

88 



Prussia, Austria and England gathered like 
vultures around the carcass of Napoleon's 
empire and began to divide the spoils. They 
haggled for bargains, using bribes and in- 
trigues. This was in 1814. Preceding that 
date we find similar occurences on every page 
of history. On the face of it such a method 
is utterly incompatible with the principles of 
Christianity. He who made many nations 
and wished each nation to develop its in- 
herent talents would not encourage the rob- 
ber barons. 

But while such principles have co-existed 
with the teaching of the Gospel they were 
systematically encouraged by the new mate- 
rialism. Men lost their sense of accountabil- 
ity to God. Everyone looked after his own 
interest. The weak were pushed against the 
wall. The world became an arena. In a 
volume of sermons I published in 1910 oc- 
curred this prophecy: "the great Christian 
nations build their dreadnaughts, arranging 
for a frightful carnage; our civilization is 
rent asunder by conflicting interests of rich 
and poor." That fact was so obvious that I 
need not pose as a prophet. When Ibsen re- 

89 



marked that to him it was immaterial 
whether the dogs ate the pigs or the pigs the 
dogs he expressed the cynicism of the age. 

Over against these irritating voices we dis- 
cern a new note. It comes from the White 
House. Listen: "The thought of the plain 
people here and everywhere throughout the 
world, the people who enjoy no privilege, is 
the air all governments must henceforth 
breathe if they would live." Is not this an 
echo to the words of Christ: "He that oi- 
fendeth one of these little ones, it were bet- 
ter that a millstone be tied about his neck ?" 
Listen again: "When I said that the nations 
of the world were entitled to free pathways 
upon the sea I was thinking of our present 
enemies as well as our present associates." 
What is this but the application of the Golden 
Rule. Listen once more: "The hand of God 
is upon the nations. He will show them 
favor only if they rise to the clear heights 
of His own justice and mercy!" What does 
this mean but a repetition of the ^Master*s 
words : "Without me ye can do nothing !" 

Such words from the lips of a responsible 
statesman have thrilled my soul. They make 

90 



me look for the dawn. Surely medieval 
darkness is being swept from the horizon. 
It was medieval darkness that said: "No 
mercy will be shown! No prisoners will be 
taken! As the Huns under Attila made a 
name for themselves, so may the name of 
German be fixed in China." It was me- 
dieval darkness that declared: "the treaty 
with Belgium is a scrap of paper." Behold 
the herald of a new day! Says President 
Wilson : "We believe that our own desire for 
a new international order, under which rea- 
son and justice and the common interests of 
mankind shall prevail, is the desire of en- 
lightened men everywhere," and on another 
occasion he boldly expresses the hope that 
after this war the world may witness a gen- 
eral disarmament. 

If this is the spirit of our army, we have 
a right to speak of our boys as "Pershing's 
Crusaders." The war is lifted out of its nar- 
row limitations into a world movement of 
immeasurable dimensions. "The supreme 
moment of history has come." We are no 
longer to meet in fratricidal struggle. We 
are to co-operate in fraternal progress. Out 

91 



of the clash of arms will rise the spirit of the 
new age. Isaiah dreamed of it when he said 
that, *'swords would be turned into plough 
shares." Paul prophecied the time when 
God would be all in all. John saw **the Holy 
City.'* If we are approaching such marvel- 
ous results, the war has been a blessing in 
disguise. It has exterminated infidelity and 
cynicism. It has banished material stand- 
ards. It has raised the flag of idealism. All 
social questions soon become national ques- 
tions and all national questions soon become 
religious questions and the deepest theme of 
history is the conflict between belief and un- 
belief. Clearly America sounds the note of 
faith. She identifies her cause with the 
cause of the Almighty. In this sign we shall 
conquer. No matter what clever generals 
may outline the plan of battle, one thing is 
certain. God will win the war. ''Let us not 
pray,'* said Lincoln, "that the Almighty 
should be on our side. Let us make sure that 
we are on the side of the Almighty." The 
Christian religion can interpret the problem 
of the present war. It says that "the whole 
creation groaneth and waiteth for the mani- 

92 



festation of the sons of God." If humanity 
emerges from this ocean of blood and tears, 
it will emerge purified and invigorated. It 
will have reached the greatest attainments 
which history has recorded. 



93 



The Greatest Mother in the World 



Red Cross Speech Delivered in the Public Square of 
Grant City, Mo., May 18, 1918. 

AT THE invitation of your Council of 
Defense I am permitted to raise my 
voice in honor of the Red Cross. And, 
indeed, if there is one issue vastly overtower- 
ing all others, an issue which might cause 
the sphinx to descend from her pedestal and 
to burst into eloquence, it is this symbol of 
a world-wide love. Today more than ever, 
when ancient ties and national agreements 
have been broken, when diplomats have been 
sent home and treaties abolished, all civiliza- 
tion would reel and stagger like a drunken 
man were it not for this final bulwark of fra- 
ternity. The world resembles the maiden 
tossed about by angry waves and cleaving 
with a last effort to the arms of the cross. 

95 



This is the ultimate refuge. Let it break and 
the deluge will cover all ! 

Woe to Germany if she fails to respect the 
Red Cross ! Cursed be the gun that aims at 
this sacred emblem ! Abolish it and the night 
of the middle ages will overwhelm us. 

The Red Cross can be traced back to Flor- 
ence Nightingale. It is a creature of the 
nineteenth century. It is the Greek cross 
antedating the passion cross to emphasize its 
world-wide meaning. Even the Turks bow 
to this symbol. It is red because it is flaming 
with the fire of love. Above the British lion, 
the Prussian eagle, the Chinese dragon, aye, 
even above the Stars and Stripes, it can be 
clearly discerned. It is the flag of flags. It 
is the banner of humanity. 

Hatred and prejudice have swept every- 
thing aside. Art used to furnish interna- 
tional ties. Goethe, a German, wrote "Faust" 
and Gounod, a Frenchman, set it to music. 
Carlyle, a Scotchman, eulogized Teutonic 
writers and Berlin prided itself on giving 
more Shakespearian performances than Lon- 
don. Verdi, an Italian, drew inspiration from 
Wagner, a German, and Victor Hugo com- 

96 



posed a poem adaptable to an air of Beetho- 
ven. But when war broke loose this graceful 
bridge was shattered. The dream of poets 
and the voice of music could not retard the 
rising tide. 

Science, too, failed to avert the crisis. 
There has always existed a natural tie be- 
tween men of science. Oliver Lodge and 
Ernest Haeckel, Roentgen and Marconi, 
Eucken and Bergson are bound together by 
common ideals. True scientists are not an- 
tagonistic to each other. They are fellow- 
students in the laboratory of Nature. They 
are seekers after truth. Their work is not 
dedicated to any one nation. It is given to 
the world. But when war was declared this 
chain was also broken. 

In 1908, while engaged as a teacher in St. 
John's Seminary, Hamburg, I had the privi- 
lege of serving as a guide to the British 
clergy who had gone to Germany to strength- 
en fraternal ties with that country. Their 
purpose seemed to be sincere. On the basis 
of our common religion they advocated a 
closer union, a heartier fellowship. Speeches 
of welcome were delivered by representative 

97 



bishops and statesmen and the occasion 
seemed to indicate most wholesome results. 
Ten years have passed and all this oratory is 
lost in the cyclone of war. 

Commerce has been variously defined. 
Roughly speaking it is the art of taking 
things from where they are plentiful and of 
putting them where they are needed. Every 
nation has a very natural reason for wishing 
this art to flourish. The energy now used in 
producing ammunition could be much more 
profitably spent in plowing the fields. Car- 
lyle expresses this truth in the quaint remark 
that every time a squaw quarrels with her 
husband on the banks of the Hudson the 
price of beaver is being raised by such a 
waste of words. The United States pays al- 
most two million dollars per hour for the 
continuation of the war. Surely, from a ma- 
terial point of view war is a poor investment. 
But when the crisis came money considera- 
tions could not hold us back. Commerce is a 
mighty factor, but there are things mightier 
than commercial ties. The President has 
pledged this nation to the last man and to the 
last dollar. Let the world take notice. America 



is the most idealistic nation on earth. 

I do not hold that this war could have been 
averted. Our government hesitated a long 
time. Mr. Wilson was so patient that some 
became impatient. But the President realized 
all the war would mean. He would not take 
the step unless it was inevitable in the light 
of honor and right. But having come to the 
conclusion that justice and humanity de- 
manded a decision, he pledged the whole na- 
tion until victory would be assured. The 
spirit of the nation was well expressed by the 
American officer who, w^hen asked by a for- 
eign general how deep the American line 
really was replied : "It reaches from No Man's 
Land to San Francisco." 

From our viewpoint the war was inevitable. 
On the face of this globe there is not room 
enough for two irreconcilable principles, em- 
bodied by our government on the one hand 
and Hohenzollerism on the other. William II 
not only told us that he wanted a place in the 
sun, but he began to put out the lights of the 
world. Under such circumstances the sword 
had to be unsheathed and it will not be 
sheathed until the flag of feudalism has gone 

99 



down forever ! We have believed in the serv- 
ices of diplomacy, in conferences at the 
Hague, in kindly messages and fraternal 
greetings. We have progressed without 
armies and navies. But when the sword is 
forced into our hands we shall use force, force 
without stint and limit, until the believers in 
force are forced to forever surrender their 
credo of force. This is the real meaning of 
the war. 

Art and science and commerce failed, 
when the great nations met in deadly slaugh- 
ter, but the Red Cross did not go down. It 
is the last hope of the millions who were the 
innocent victims of unscrupulous rulers. Na- 
tional ties are now stronger and grander than 
ever before, but international ideals are natu- 
rally wanting. And yet, what is more pre- 
cious than a common basis where we at last 
can meet. When the sword has been put back 
in its scabbard, when militarists have been 
humbled and humanity been reinstated, when 
the wounds that have been inflicted must be 
healed, where shall we go? We must meet 
at the heart of the Greatest Mother. We 



100 



must find ourselves in the soul of the Red 
Cross. 

Our boys have gone to foreign battlefields. 
Shivering in the trenches, besieged by ver- 
min and rats, enveloped by shot and shell, 
face to face with mutilation and death, thou- 
sands of miles from their mothers and sweet- 
hearts, aye, from the land they love — who 
can sustain them against such odds except 
this flag of flags which follows them whither- 
soever they may be sent. They know that 
they will not lie forgotten on lonely fields. 
They know that the Red Cross nurse will 
minister to their needs and symbolize in her 
lofty devotion all that is worth while in this 
struggling world. Just as the sun is the light 
of day, so love is the light of the heart. It 
is the true morale without which no army 
can win, no soldier do his best. Wherever 
Old Glory leads the Red Cross must follow. 
The one means duty, the other means love. 
They belong together. 

While it is only natural that each nation 
favors its own patriots, the Red Cross is 
boundless as the sky. It has no limit. Even 
the wounded foe will be looked after. The 

101 



story is told of two soldiers, one a Russian 
and the other a Pole, who lay side by side, 
each with a deadly wound in his breast. The 
Russian, rising with a last effort, called for 
a drop of water. The Pole, thinking him to 
be a Pole, rose to help his comrade. But he 
recognized the uniform of the foe. With a 
last effort he flung his arms around the Rus- 
sion and would not let go until his enemy was 
strangled. With his dying breath he re- 
ported this dead of patriotism. But if the 
Red Cross had found these two men they 
would not look at the uniforms. They would 
not discriminate. They would only realize 
that they were dealing with two brave sol- 
diers who had fought valiantly for what they 
had considered their duty, two heroic men 
who were suffering from painful wounds, two 
human souls ready to return to the Father 
of all men, two hearts crying out in anguish 
and loneliness. They would pour ointment 
into their wounds, would comfort their shat- 
tered souls, would lighten them home with a 
last token of sympathy and love and comfort. 
The battle of Santiago presents two power- 
ful scenes. The Spanish fleet is escaping 

102 



from the harbor. As soon as it shoots into 
view the big guns of the American battle- 
ships come into action. One after the other 
the Spanish ships become mountains of flame. 
The hapless Spaniards, mutilated and roasted 
alive in the hulls of the ships, try to escape 
by leaping into the water. The sharks await 
their victims. Fearful screams can be clearly 
discerned. Schley is the victor of the day. 
But there is another picture. The white flag 
has gone up. The guns are immediately si- 
lenced and the American admiral orders the 
launching of rescue boats. Everywhere the 
wounded are being picked up. Their fevered 
heads rest on cool pillows. Kindly faces bend 
over them. Chaplains offer prayers at their 
bedside. It was Old Glory that served the 
nation ; it was the Red Cross that served hu- 
manity. How significant that in the pur- 
poses of the war our President has empha- 
tically united the cause of the nation and the 
cause of humanity ! 

The service rendered by the Red Cross to 
the wounded is perhaps the most conspicuous 
of its duties. But the activity of this organi- 
zation is practically without bounds. When 

103 



the weary soldier returns and finds his home 
burned, his children gone, he stands at the 
brink of despair. What has life in store for 
him after his loved ones are gone? While 
he gazes into this abyss he feels a kindly 
hand on his shoulder and a sympathetic voice 
advising him. Soon he is taken to a little 
cottage, where the little ones have been taken 
care of while father faced the foe. There is 
his good wife welcoming him with love's 
holiest kiss. With new life and inspiration 
he returns to his post of duty. When life 
seemed darkest he beheld one star. Yes, he 
will never forget the greatest mother of them 
all — the Red Cross. 

If we admire the strong arm that shoul- 
ders a gun and shoots the enemy, let us not 
forget the hand that heals the wound and 
comforts the helpless! While we place lau- 
rels on the brow of the victor who slew the 
foe let us remember the noble figure who ap- 
peared to the dying like a vision from heaven ! 
Let us recall the blessing of Him who men- 
tioned those who gave a cup of cold water to 
the least of these! Our ideas of right and 
wrong are not always clear and many an ac- 

104 



tion applauded by men may not stand in the 
presence of God. But one flower will never 
fade, one star will never be extinguished, one 
virtue will never grow old. That is the mis- 
sion of mercy. 

I am proud to note that the American peo- 
ple have a stronger Red Cross organization 
than any other people on earth. When it 
comes to money contributions all classes 
hasten to help in this movement. Again and 
again the government has appealed for help 
and again and again the response has been 
generous, glad, universal. Help for the Bel- 
gians, help for the Serbians, help for the 
French, help for the Armenians, help for the 
widows and help for the orphans ! Somehow 
we seem to realize the words of Cardinal New- 
man : "Remember we are all living in a hospi- 
tal." Everybody needs help, encouragement, 
sympathy, comfort. What nobler use for the 
hand than to bind the painful wound of a 
brother fallen among thieves? What better 
use for the tongue than to utter words of 
cheer ? What holier use for the feet than to 
follow the strugglers into the dark unknown? 



105 



What worthier use for money than to assist 
in this cause? 

When will peace come? 

When the lips of "patriots" are dumb 

Throughout the world; 

When the pure white flag of humankind 

Shall be unfurled. 

When will war die? 

When from every land beneath the sky 

"Laws" shall have passed, 

And the higher, truer law of Love 

Shall bind men fast. 

Our country stands for universal justice 
and for universal love. She is the herald of 
a new day, the morning star of a nobler 
civilization. Whenever our flag goes down 
night has come for the human race. Where- 
ever our flag will go we shall have liberty and 
the square deal. Some years ago I returned 
to Germany and looked for my old associates. 
Many things were changed. The houses 
looked different. My friends were scattered. 
Among the aristocrats and bureaucrats of 
the empire I felt quite out of place. I had no 
"von" in front of my name and I had no mili- 
tary decorations. I was just a plain Ameri- 
can. A feeling of intense isolation came over 

106 



me and I was truly a stranger in the land of 
my birth. Suddenly as I turned the corner 
of the street my sight was cheered by a won- 
derful sight. There, on the roof of the Ameri- 
can consulate, behold my flag, my country's 
symbol, Old Glory unfurled to the breeze. 
Then I knew by the throbbing of my heart 
that I was every inch an American citizen. 
And why do we love our flag beyond all 
others. Because like the flag of the Red Cross 
it means something to all the world ! 



107 



Why I am an American 



Speech delivered in Tulsa, Okla., Sept. 29, 1917. 

SINCE the beginning of this war we have 
been deluged with pessimism. We are 
told that this is the darkest period in 
history. Men representing the pulpit tell us 
that the world is coming to an end and men 
opposing the pulpit aver that Christianity- 
has proven a failure. However much they 
may disagree in their policies, they concur in 
the sinister interpretation of the present 
catastrophe. 

But if it is true that the night is dark, it 
is als true that because of the night we can 
see the stars! Behold the wave of idealism 
rising at the White House an^ touching in 
ever-widening circles the shores of all hearts ! 
We think big thoughts: liberty, justice, hu- 
manity. We use gigantic language: ''the 

109 



world safe for democracy." The humblest 
citizen broadens his vision and feels himself 
a part of universal history. The common sol- 
dier realizes that he is an actor in the drama 
of God. A chain of sympathy has bound the 
race together. It was reserved for our age, 
after centuries of infidelity and cynicism, to 
recover as a basis of international dealing the 
sermon on the mount ! 'The most vitalizing 
thing in the world is Christianity," says 
Woodrow Wilson. Those who have followed 
the course taken by our President will agree 
that the outstanding feature of all his words 
is the application of Christ's teaching to in- 
ternational ideals. 

If this is true, who will say that the war 
is an unmitigated evil? Truly the time has 
come when men must learn the art of gather- 
ing grapes of thorns, to find the lily in the 
swamp, to see the stars reflected in the gut- 
ter ! I do not like to admit it, but it cannot be 
denied that we needed a good shaking-up. 
We have had long eras of prosperity and all 
that we reaped therefrom was a double chin 
and a pleasant indifference to things ideal. 
Self-sacrifice had become a poet's dream. 

110 



"Jehurun waxed fat and kicked." Out of the 
deluge came the rainbow, out of the Civil war 
a united nation and out of this conflict a re- 
juvenated world! 

Some of us did not know patriotism until 
our loyalty was put to a test. Columbus did 
not discover all there was of America, neither 
did Amerigo Vespucci. We are just getting 
a hold on it now. Our country has definite 
ideals. We have a mission in the history of 
nations. And if there are people still blind 
toward the innumerable blessings of Ameri- 
can citizenship, we shall apply to them the 
words of the guide to a girl in the Louvre, 
who captiously remarked : "I do not like these 
pictures" — " 'Excuse me, it is the visitors, 
not the pictures, who are on trial here.' " He 
who condemns our country condemns him- 
self! 

I am an American because I believe in re- 
ligious liberty. That they might have free- 
dom to worship God the Pilgrim Fathers 
came to these shores. We do not want the 
state to regulate religion. In countries where 
the government controls the conscience of 
its citizens oppression has caused spiritual 

111 



indifference and hatred of the church. "Give 
to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what 
is God's." We admit that the state churches 
of Europe are more imposing than our places 
of worship. But it is better to commune 
with your God in the humblest meeting house 
than to worship in cathedrals where the gov- 
ernment cages the soul. We must also admit 
that freedom of the conscience has caused 
the rise of innumerable sects. But again it 
is better to have a separate church for every 
individual than to have thumbscrews on the 
soul. Give me the thunder and lightning of 
thought! Beecher and Brooks can show 
forth the glory of the Gospel and Ingersoll 
can assail it. Truth need not be afraid. Con- 
troversy will clear the issue. Friction will 
brighten the blade of faith. On the sojl of 
America everyone can worship according to 
the dictates of his conscience. To every creed 
we apply the ancient declaration: If it is of 
God, it will live ; if it is of men, it will perish. 
Error is harmless where truth is left free to 
defeat it. When some ten years ago I visited 
Hamburg the mighty churches were prac- 



112 



tically empty. The free church of America 
is one of our greatest blessings. 

Again, I am an American because this is 
the land of social equality. Beneath our flag 
we recognize nothing superior to the average 
citizen. We bow to no titles. We have no 
blue bloods. A London butler, addressing an 
American bishop: *'My lord, the bishop," re- 
ceived the reply : "The bishop, my lord !" Peo- 
ple can, of course, get together and constitute 
themselves as "the upper ten." But this is 
a little fad of their own, giving them a great 
deal of pleasure and doing no harm to the 
rest of us. The typical American is not to 
be found in the mansions of the idle rich. He 
does not live in king's houses and wear soft 
raiment. The typical American is the pioneer 
who blazed his way through the wilderness. 
His is the vision splendid. He dreamed of a 
golden California and with this dream in his 
soul he trekked through soggy forests and 
barren sands. Beneath the canopy of his 
prairie schooner he has visions as vast as 
those of Jacob. This man, firm of purpose 
and lofty of spirit, this hero of forest and 
field, this conqueror of barriers, this indomin- 

113 



table soul is our great representative — the 
American pioneer ! He holds the heart of our 
country as the acorn holds the oak. With his 
picture firmly fixed on the wall of its memory 
the present will rise to a mighty future ! May 
our children never forget that the greatest 
President who ever graced the White House 
came from a log cabin. It was Abraham 
Lincoln. There always will be people who will 
try to pervert the principles of advancing de- 
mocracy. But those who can read our rec- 
ords unbiased and intelligently will never 
cease to emphasize the fact that America's 
glory is her recognition of social equality. 

Again, I am an American because our land 
offers the greatest industrial opportunities. 
This does not mean that we have solved every 
problem pertaining to capital and labor. 
There are still many issues that will have to 
be met before we can claim the ideal. But 
every year legislation tightens around the 
wrist of greed. Our nation, which shed her 
best blood for the liberation of the black man, 
will not allow little children to perish in 
sweat shops nor will she tolerate the hovel 
and the tenement house. No human agency 



114 



is strong enough to settle at once the prob- 
lems of a hundred million people. But the 
day is dawning in the social conscience. Be- 
cause we asked the question "who is my 
neighbor?" we have sent our young manhood 
to foreign fields of battle. When they return 
with laurels on their brow, when Belgian or- 
phans have been placed into pleasant homes 
and French cripples have been cared for, then 
we shall begin to ask with zeal renewed: 
''what can we do to aid the weak and help- 
less in our midst?" The poorest American 
child has a right to play. The humblest citi- 
zen has a right to be protected against un- 
lawful greed. We shall not permit the policy 
of the boy who, when asked why he did not 
share the sled with his weaker brother, gave 
the saucy reply : **I do ; he pulls it up hill and 
I ride it down hill." America is the land of 
industrial opportunity. She pays larger wages 
to her workingman than any country on 
earth. She has a higher regard for his dig- 
nity as a man. She puts him on the level 
with his employer. She starts him in life 
alongside of the son of the millionaire by that 
greatest of all American institutions — the lit- 

115 



tie red schoolhouse! Three cheers for our 
public school ! 

Finally, I am an American because this is 
a land of civic democracy. The people rule. 
Higher than Congress, higher than the Presi- 
dent is the tribunal of public opinion. Our 
great statesmen are they who have their ear 
to the ground. Lincoln said that we could 
not fool all the people all the time and Lin- 
coln's greatness consisted in the fact that he 
was the very voice and expression of the 
American people. Not otherwise war could 
have been declared. The President knew 
himself a minister and servant of the people. 
He felt the pulse of the public and when 
Congress finally voted to enter the conflict it 
was because they had heard from home. Men 
in an autocracy do not understand this. For 
some time they have scoffed at the possibility 
of democratic rule. But when I review 140 
years of American history I am amazed of 
what has been accomplished in so short a 
time. I do not believe that either Washing- 
ton or Jefferson could ever have dreamed of 
the marvelous growth of their own princi- 
ples. After our country has shipped two 

116 



million soldiers across the sea and is pro- 
ceeding to ship five million more let no one 
say that our government is inefficient. Amer- 
ica has been the marvel of her friends and 
foes. She will decide the destiny of the 
world. I am proud to be an American. 

I admit that perfection is still a long way 
off. We have "citizens" who will sell their 
votes for a drink of whisky. We have "citi- 
zens" who never do their duty at the polls 
and afterwards howl because the country is 
going to damnation. If anything is wrong in 
America, the fault is not the fault of the 
country. The fault is ours. We have been 
the slackers. We have failed to appreciate 
the land of civic democracy. A man who en- 
joys the privileges of this flag and fails to 
recognize the duties of citizenship has no 
place under the folds of Old Glory. He be- 
longs under the heel of the kaiser or under 
the Russian knout. Read those two letters — 
so full of meaning — U. S. Read them again ; 
they mean "usl" 

There may be flaws in our national policies, 
but they who doubt democracy on account of 
such flaws are like the fool who set the house 

117 



afire because the plumbing was out of order. 
They see the hole in the doughnut and do 
not see the doughnut. The war will force us 
to study the principles of our republic. Men 
will learn more patriotism this year than 
they have learned since the end of the Civil 
war. Ignorance will die a natural death. It 
is dangerous to give the ballot to ignorance. 
Thus the torch which should mean light will 
mean destruction. Placing the ballot into the 
hands of the uninformed is to tie firebrands 
to foxes' tails and to turn them loose amid 
the standing corn ! The thing most needful 
today is an intelligent Americanism. Learn 
to know your country and you cannot but 
love it ! 

We have condemned Germany because she 
planned to conquer. We, too, desire to con- 
quer the world. But we do not want to take 
territory with the sword. We do not want to 
set aside the rights of other nations. We 
want to conquer with the truth. We want to 
win the world with the square deal. We want 
all nations to know that if a child is born in 
the palace of Potsdam it has no more crown 
on its head than the babe which God gives 

118 



to the lowliest peasant. These truths are 
self-evident. They come with the force of 
the rising tide. They will soon flood the 
world and Germany herself will take her 
place with the democracies of mankind. Ger- 
many will rue the day when she bowed to the 
ambitions of Bismarck. What benefit is it to 
the German mother that Alsace-Lorraine is 
ruled by the Teutons ? Is it worth the death 
of her child? What is the use of conquered 
territory? It does not enrich the conqueror. 
No, as soon as he has conquered he carries a 
live fox under his belly band. Conquered ter- 
ritory means additional responsibility; it 
means extension of administration. England 
owns half the world, but the people in Eng- 
land are not richer than the people in Swit- 
zerland or Holland. Russia is vast in terri- 
tory, but her common people have almost 
nothing. If our country will defeat Germany, 
she will give to the German people a blessing 
in disguise. She will defeat the Germany of 
the militarists. She will restore the Ger- 
many of art and letters, the Germany of the 
peaceful past. 

What boundless conceit in this policy 

119 



known as Pan-Germanism! I cannot under- 
stand how any intelligent man could dream 
of such a monstrosity! The world has been 
generous in appreciating Germany's contribu- 
tion to civilization. Our young people have 
studied at Leipzig and at Munich. Our mu- 
sicians have gone to Berlin. A degree from 
German universities has been placed at the 
highest value. Is it because of this fact that 
the Germans want it all ? The greatest mod- 
ern inventor is Marconi, an Italian ; the brain- 
iest thinker, Bergson, a Frenchman; the 
most important statesman, Wilson, an Amer- 
ican. Does Germany claim supremacy on 
account of her military machine? We have 
seen that our boys after six months' training 
are more than a match for the Kaiser's crack 
regiments ! 

Germany is one key on the organ and woe 
to the world if its civilization is but one key. 
The music of God is made of that harmony 
which comes from the co-operation of all 
nations. Representatives of all peoples have 
come to our shores. They have made their 
homes here. They have merged their ideals 
with ours. In a sense we are an international 

120 



nation, and if any nation could reasonably 
meet the demands of civilization, it might be 
ours, because French and German, Greek and 
Italian, Belgian and Serbian meet on our 
soil. Here all nations co-operate. But it 
never has occurred to any of our statesmen 
to think of Pan-Americanism. We do not 
wish to coerce our neighbors. We let Mexico 
work out her own salvation and we do not 
interfere with the national aspirations of the 
republics of the south. Only in the bigoted 
brains of the Bismarcks and the Bernhardis 
such nightmares could be evolved ! 

In the early history of our navy Captain 
Paul Jones gave voice to patriotism: "This 
flag and I are twins ; we cannot be parted in 
life or death. So long as we can float we shall 
float together. If we must sink, we will go 
down as one!" After a century of heroic 
records cannot we say as much? Never be- 
fore has the flag meant as much as today! 
Never before has the world recognized it as 
it recognizes it today ! Do you know the soul 
of **01d Glory," its holy significance ? 

The story is told of an American boy who 
with his father visited the world's fair in a 

121 



foreign land. At night they went to the Hall 
of Flags, a vast amphitheatre under the open 
sky. The boy admired the emblems of the 
different nations. "What is that lion, father," 
he queried. 'That is the flag of Great Bri- 
tain.'^ "And that eagle?" "The eagle of Prus- 
sia." "And that dragon?" "The dragon of 
China." The boy looked around and suddenly 
he added with a plaintive voice : "And where, 
father, is the American flag?" The father 
looked around and did not see it. But it was 
a beautiful summer night. The stars had 
come out and shone in wondrous lustre from 
the wide, blue sky. An inspiration seized the 
father: "Look up, my son, behold the heav- 
ens, star-spangled and beautiful! Men may 
forget your flag, but God has unrolled it 
above all the world, the symbol of liberty and 
love, the hope of the human race !" 

May our patriotism be as pure as that ! We 
are a peace-loving people. We prefer to de- 
vote our minds to the pursuits of brotherly 
concourse. But if we must fight, let us fight 
like men with an ideal ! Let us fight till we 
win, and after we have won let all the world 
be blessed by our victory ! 

122 



CONTENTS 



Your Flag and My Flag 5 

Freighted with Sacred Memories 21 

American Ideals 37 

Our Heritage 5 1 

Uncle Sam Using His Man Power 65 

The Climax of History 79 

The Greatest Mother in the World 95 

Why I Am an American 109 



